4Point Application Support. How does it work?

You have just arrived at your office and you open your email. You discover that your AEM system is down and you are getting dozens of messages from staff that are asking you what is happening. You know from that moment on its going to be a rough day.
Now what do you do?

The purpose of this blog is to create an environment where our technical team can share their insights, knowledge, opinions and experiences with you.
Questions such as how do we move to a mobile platform? Has anyone one else done it? What are the pitfalls? Does it actually work?
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Training for Adobe Experience Manager Matters

By Tim Reeve

When I entered my first swim race, I trained hard to become a better swimmer. Time spent on stroke, breathing, all the necessary parts. Then, when the race started, I found out we needed to dive in to start. That was news to me and rather slowed down the rest of my race! We’ve all had the experience of realizing we could have done something better if only we had better knowledge. That is where training (with some guidance!) comes in. Training helps not just the individual, but their group and organization as well.

So why does gaining experience with the technology that you work with day by day make sense? The most important for both the individual and the company is that you learn how to take advantage of the way the system is designed and built. Often there are several ways to achieve a particular end that will take different amounts of effort to create, as well as to maintain. The decisions that you make today will affect what you need to do as new versions of AEM are released. Finally you will also gain a better understanding of the approach or culture that is endemic to AEM. When you want to implement a new component, is it better to take full control and build your own or inherit? If you inherit, how much customization will it require? Each of these decisions will affect the amount of time and effort required, as well as affect the extensibility of the custom component.

This also applies to the way the applications for the technology work. For example, when working with AEM Workbench, you can revert assets to an older version or delete them. However, the effect of reverting or deleting will depend on what versions of the asset have been saved. If the asset has been checked in, the application has to be updated on the server. Therefore simply reverting or deleting the asset of the local copy is not sufficient. A similar issue for AEM Designer is what to do if you are not happy with the changes you have made during an editing session: as with most applications, you have the choice of not saving those edits when you leave the session.

Another benefit of training is it can expand your network of support. As you develop your understanding of AEM, you will have lots of questions about many areas. We are all capable of gaining great details about how things work, while getting to why is harder. Having a group of people to help your understanding increases your learning potential. In a training session, you have the opportunity to expand your circle of expertise both inside and outside your own organisation. Also you will be introduced to some self-help areas, such as the Adobe AEM forum, as well as documentation.

From the perspective of the employer, there are also many benefits to training. First, there is the consistency of knowledge across the organization which is increased if people attend similar training. As the group uses the same vocabulary and works on similar issues, cohesion is improved. As group dynamics improve, the quality of the work should increase. As a side benefit, it also protects the group: if one person moves to another position, their contribution can be moved to other individuals if all members have similar knowledge.

In order to retain employees, it’s useful to have career growth and satisfaction from an increased knowledge of your work. This also adds an element of personal development as employees have the opportunity to expand their comfort level while they are increasing their value to the company. Generally, the best employees look for new ways to grow in their position, as well as looking for new opportunities that present a way to move ahead.

Training also helps to create improved capabilities on the team: if one person is not as comfortable in one area, they can be given support. In fact, one benefit is that training can diminish the knowledge gap among the group members. With regular training in place, it becomes simpler to identify any missing skills so that gap can be filled.

Finally, to create better interaction with Customer Support, it’s critical to know what information they require, as well as where to find it! Including the necessary log files, as well as other background details, can speed up the time to resolution, as well as enable a better response to the initial query. When you think of the time required to respond to an email request for missing information, having the details available represents a significant saving.

For all these reasons, training is a good investment both in time and money.